RE: Forcing Lettuce in the Winter

My 0.5 cents worth:

 I have grown lettuce in the basement under lights.  It grew best at cool
(60's F)temps.  Any warmer and it got long and leggy.  Very little
fertilizer- You aren't going to grow a head of lettuce.  I've planted the
seeds thickly and just snipped off an area for eating.  My basement is too
warm during the winter to get a good crop.  I'm going to build a cold frame
and buy some hardy lettuce seeds for overwintering.  Cooks Gardens has
"winter lettuce".  I still have lettuce alive under a floating row cover in
the garden and we have had many days of below freezing weather!  I don't
know how it is surviving.  (Well, it is covered with snow right now, so I
can't say it's still alive)  
  This year I am growing Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris, cicla group for those
unfamiliar with this term)downstairs.  Doing wonderful. Have already eaten
one meal's worth, it regrew and now ready for the final snipping. Main
problem is fungus gnats.  I am growing the chard in a window box, and the
gnats love it.  The container size makes it hard to treat for them. 

That's my half cents worth Good luck!  Lettuce know how you do!

Beth (MD zone 7)

-----Original Message-----
From: Julianne Wiley [j*@planetc.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2000 9:01 PM
To: veggie-list@eskimo.com
Subject: Re: Forcing Lettuce in the Winter


Dear Kohlrabi Rancher    (c:

I just want to add my 2 cents worth about preventing damping off.  I'm no
expert, but I had SO MUCH damping off in past years that I had to give it
some serious thought, as follows:

(1) if you don't use a soilless sterile seed-starting mix, you have to
sterilize your soil.

(2) the bad culprits of damping-off, mold, and fungus among-us seem to be:

    -too much warmth

    -too much fertilizer

    -too much moisture, especially at the surface of the soil

    -too little air flow/ventilation

    -sentimental gardener not immediately destroying affected plants and
removing the containers, leading to contamination of the whole windowsill
plantation (yes, mine was on a windowsill)

(3) therefore I'd say, keep your lettuce cool, dilute your fertilizer
(especially N) to weak levels, try to keep the soil surface from getting
soggy (e.g. by putting a layer of sand or vermiculite right on top), try to
get some daily air flow by opening a window or turning on a fan---- AND if
perchance the dread damping-off or fungus or mold makes its appearnace,
remorselessly remove the affected plants, soil, containers.

I guess that's my THREE cents worth.

Julianne
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